Systems and methods for automatically connecting a user of a hands-free intercommunication system

ABSTRACT

A hands-free intercom may include a user-tracking sensor, a directional microphone, a directional sound emitter, and a communication interface. The user-tracking sensor may determine a location of a user so the directional microphone can measure vocal emissions by the user and the directional sound emitter can deliver audio to the user. The hands-free intercom may determine whether the user is communicatively coupled via a mobile device to a remote entity. The hands-free intercom may be configured to receive a handoff of the communicative coupling, for example, by acting as a peripheral of the mobile device, by requesting the handoff, and/or the like. The hands-free intercom may be configured to deliver communications from the user to an appliance and vice versa. The hands-free intercom may manage access rights of the various entities to prevent unauthorized communications.

If an Application Data Sheet (“ADS”) has been filed on the filing dateof this application, it is incorporated by reference herein. Anyapplications claimed on the ADS for priority under 35 U.S.C. §§119, 120,121, or 365(c), and any and all parent, grandparent, great-grandparent,etc., applications of such applications, are also incorporated byreference, including any priority claims made in those applications andany material incorporated by reference, to the extent such subjectmatter is not inconsistent herewith.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefit of the earliest availableeffective filing date(s) from the following listed application(s) (the“Priority Applications”), if any, listed below (e.g., claims earliestavailable priority dates for other than provisional patent applicationsor claims benefits under 35 USC §119(e) for provisional patentapplications, for any and all parent, grandparent, great-grandparent,etc. applications of the Priority Application(s)).

PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

None

If the listings of applications provided above are inconsistent with thelistings provided via an ADS, it is the intent of the Applicant to claimpriority to each application that appears in the DomesticBenefit/National Stage Information section of the ADS and to eachapplication that appears in the Priority Applications section of thisapplication.

All subject matter of the Priority Applications and of any and allapplications related to the Priority Applications by priority claims(directly or indirectly), including any priority claims made and subjectmatter incorporated by reference therein as of the filing date of theinstant application, is incorporated herein by reference to the extentsuch subject matter is not inconsistent herewith.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to systems and methods for automaticallyhanding off calls to a hands-free intercommunication system.

SUMMARY

A hands-free intercommunication system (“hands-free intercom”) may beable to communicatively couple a user to an entity of interest withoutrequiring a tactile input and/or a specific verbal phrase. Thehands-free intercom may be able to determine from gestures and/or vocalemissions with whom the user wishes to speak. For example, thehands-free intercom may determine the entity of interest from thesubject matter of the vocal emissions, a tone of voice, an uttered name,a spoken command, and/or the like. A communication interface may beconfigured to communicatively couple the user to a communication deviceof the entity of interest. The communication interface may determine anoptimal communication device of the entity of interest with which tocommunicatively couple.

The hands-free intercom may include a directional microphone to receivevocal emissions from the user and a directional sound emitter to deliveraudio to the user. The communication interface may communicativelycouple the directional microphone and directional sound emitter to thecommunication device of the entity of interest to allow the user andentity of interest to communicate. The hands-free intercom may alsoinclude a user-tracking sensor configured to determine the location ofthe user. The directional microphone and directional sound emitter maytarget the user based on the location determined by the user-trackingsensor. The directional microphone may include a phased array and/or ametamaterial array to permit gain to be maximized in the direction ofthe user without any moving parts. The directional sound emitter may beconfigured to emit ultrasonic sound waves towards the user. The emittedultrasonic sound waves may be configured to frequency convert to produceaudio that is audible by the user. The frequency conversion may beproduced by beating a plurality of ultrasonic sound waves together, bydownshifting the ultrasonic sound waves in the air and/or in or on amaterial on the user, and/or the like.

The hands-free intercom may determine whether a remote entity requestingto communicatively couple with the user should be allowed to do so. Thehands-free intercom may apply access rules based on context data, whichmay include data about the remote entity, sensing of the user, data fromone or more computer systems, and/or the like. The hands-free intercommay decide whether to automatically couple the remote entity,automatically refuse to couple the remote entity, prompt the user aboutthe remote entity, and/or the like. The hands-free intercom may refuseconnections, for example, if the user is sleeping, if another person ispresent with the user, and/or the like. The hands-free intercom maymonitor for eavesdroppers and may warn the user of an eavesdropperand/or refuse to communicatively couple the user while the eavesdropperis present.

The hands-free intercom may be configured to automatically receive callhandoffs from mobile communication devices. A user may becommunicatively coupled to a remote entity via a mobile communicationdevice of the user. To hand off the call, the directional microphoneand/or directional sound emitter may be communicatively coupled to acommunication device of the remote entity. The directional microphoneand/or directional sound emitter may be communicatively coupled to themobile communication device of the user, which may remain coupled to theremote entity. Alternatively, the communication interface maycommunicatively couple with the remote entity without sendingcommunications via the mobile communication device of the user. The usermay indicate through vocal emissions and/or gestures that thecommunicative coupling should be handed off; the mobile communicationdevice may indicate the communicative coupling should be handed off; thecommunication interface may automatically determine that thecommunicative coupling should be handed off (e.g., anytime the user isin range); and/or the like.

The hands-free intercom may be configured to automaticallycommunicatively couple a user to an appliance. The communicationinterface may be configured to communicatively couple the directionalmicrophone and/or the directional sound emitter to the user. The usermay indicate that the user would like to be communicatively coupled withthe appliance though vocal emissions, gestures, and/or the like. Thecommunication interface may deliver notifications from the appliance tothe user. The communication interface may allow the user to send and/orreceive communications via a mobile communication device. Thecommunication interface may translate communications from appliances tobe understandable by users and/or from user to be understandable byappliances. The communication interface may communicatively coupleappliances with one another.

The communication interface may manage access rights between usersand/or appliances. The communication interface may determine which usersmay access the appliances and what privileges they have when access ispermitted. The communication interface may determine when and/or if anappliance is permitted to send notifications to the user. Thecommunication interface may determine when communication between anappliance and a mobile communication device are permitted. Thecommunication interface may determine whether appliances are permittedto communicate with one another.

The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be inany way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments,and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and featureswill become apparent by reference to the drawings and the followingdetailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a user interacting with a hands-freeintercom.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a pair of users communicating using ahands-free intercom.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system for analyzing vocal emissions todetermine an entity of interest.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method for a user of a hands-free intercomto communicatively couple to an entity of interest.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a hands-free intercom configured toapply access rules when determining whether to couple a remote entity toa user.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a system for determining whether to couplea remote entity according to access rules.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a method for determining whether to couple aremote entity to a user.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a hands-free intercom configured to warna user about an eavesdropper.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a hands-free intercom configured toautomatically receive call handoffs from mobile communication devices.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a system for automatically receiving callhandoffs from mobile communication devices.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of a method for receiving a handoff of acommunicative coupling from a mobile device.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a hands-free intercom configured toautomatically communicatively couple a user with one or more appliances.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a system for automatically communicativelycoupling users with appliances.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of a method for automatically communicativelycoupling users with appliances.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings,similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless contextdictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in thedetailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting.Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made,without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matterpresented here.

A conventional intercom may be able to communicatively couple users(e.g., occupants of a building, occupants of a vehicle, etc.) to eachother via a plurality of user interfaces. Unfortunately, the intercommay require a tactile input to specify a desired interface rather thanbeing able to determine a desired user based on a non-tactile input,such as a gesture or a verbal input. The intercom may require the userto wear or carry communication equipment, such as a microphone, aspeaker, or a wireless transceiver. The intercom may also be unable tointeract with other systems, such as cell phone networks, computernetworks, local appliances, local computers, and/or the like, and thusmay only be able to interact with entities via the user interfaces. Theintercom may also require the user to select which device to communicatewith rather than the intercom automatically selecting the communicationdevice based on the user to be contacted. The intercom may lack accessand privacy control. For example, the intercom may connect a remoteentity to the user regardless of the time, who is with the user, theidentity of the remote entity, etc. The intercom may not protect againsteavesdroppers or keep conversations private from others near the user.Therefore, there is a need for an improved intercom that remedies thesedeficiencies.

A hands-free intercom may include a user-tracking sensor to determine alocation of a user, a directional microphone configured to target theuser and measure vocal emissions by the user, a directional soundemitter configured to target the user and deliver audio to the user, anda communication interface configured to communicatively couple the userto an entity of interest (e.g., by communicatively coupling thedirectional microphone and directional sound emitter to a communicationdevice of the entity of interest). The directional microphone anddirectional sound emitter may be located remote from the user. Thedirectional microphone and directional sound emitter may be wirelesslycoupled to the communication interface, wired to the communicationinterface, and/or the like. The directional microphone may include aphased array, a metamaterial array (e.g., an acoustic analog ofmetamaterial surface antenna technology), and/or the like. Thedirectional microphone and the directional sound emitter may receive anindication of the location of the user from the user-tracking sensor andmay target the indicated location for measurement of vocal emissions anddelivery of audio. The directional microphone and/or directional soundemitter may move focal direction as the user moves to track the user.The directional sound emitter may be configured to emit ultrasonic soundwaves configured to frequency convert to produce desired sounds that areaudible to the user. The ultrasonic waves, by virtue of their shortwavelengths, can be selectively directed and focused to the user withoutspreading to other regions; in some embodiments, different ultrasonicwaves can be directed to the left and right ears of the user. Forexample, the ultrasonic sound waves may be premodulated withaudible-frequency signals and then be nonlinearly frequency downshiftedin the air and/or frequency downshifted in a nonlinear acoustic materialin or on the user (e.g., natural tissue near the ear, or nonlinearmaterial in an earpiece) so as to produce audible sounds. Thepremodulation can be selected such that the audible sounds producedfollowing the nonlinear frequency downshifting form desired sounds,e.g., intelligible human speech. Alternatively, or in addition, aplurality of ultrasonic sound waves may be beat together to frequencyconvert to the desired frequency. For instance, a 100 kHz wave can bebeat together in a nonlinear material (e.g., air, tissue, or anearpiece) with a modulated beam having frequencies of 102-120 kHz togenerate audible sounds with frequencies between 2 kHz and 20 kHz.

The communication interface may identify the entity of interest based ona non-tactile input received from the user. In an embodiment, theuser-tracking sensor and/or an associated camera may detect a gesture bythe user indicative of the entity of interest. For instance, the usermay employ 8 different gestures to identify eight different entities ofinterest. In one embodiment, the user may use fingers or other gesturesto display numbers or letters which identify the entities of interest(e.g., from a list). In another embodiment, the user may simply use apointing gesture to identify a nearby entity of interest. The gesturesmay include purposely employed facial expressions, such as a blink, apurposely raised eyebrow, etc. For example, a user with a disability maybe able to use a facial gesture rather than an arm or hand gesture.

Alternatively, or in addition, the directional microphone may receivevocal emissions from which the communication interface identifies theentity of interest. For example, the vocal emissions may include aspoken command, a name of the entity of interest, and/or the like,and/or the communication interface may identify the entity of interestbased on a tone of voice, a subject matter of the vocal emission, and/orthe like. Such identifiers need not be by themselves globally unique,but can serve to identify the entity of interest from a limited list oflikely entities of interest. For example, if the user has only oneacquaintance named Sam, he can identify him by Sam rather than by SamuelJames Tyler. Or, if he has 5 acquaintances named William, the phrase“Bill, what did you think of yesterday's meeting” may be sufficient toidentify the specific entity of interest, based on the partial name andthe joint attendance at a defined meeting. The communication interfacemay be configured to add additional participants based on vocalemissions and/or gestures by the user, which may be used with any or allof the previous discussed methods of identifying the entity of interest.

The communication interface may perform one or more speech recognitionalgorithms on the vocal emissions to identify the subject matter of thevocal emissions. The communication interface may track one or moreprevious subject matters of one or more previous conversations and/ormay store one or more keywords from one or more previous conversations,which may then be used to identify the entity of interest. There may beone or more than one subject matter and/or keyword per conversation,and/or a subject matter and/or keyword may be associated with multipleconversations. The communication interface may gather information froman external source (e.g., a website, such as a social media site, and/orthe like) to identify the entity of interest. The communicationinterface may identify the entity of interest based on a recency in timeof a previous conversation. The communication interface may simplyselect a most recent conversation, may weight conversations based onrecency and relevance, and/or the like. The communication interface mayselect the entity of interest based on a single most relevant and/orrecent conversation and/or based on a plurality of conversations withthe entity of interest. The communication interface may identify theentity of interest based on a physical proximity to the user (e.g., theentity of interest is in an adjacent room, a location of the entity ofinterest determined by a satellite positioning system, etc.). Thecommunication interface may identify the entity of interest based upon acalendar of the user, e.g., based on the time of a scheduledconversation, the relative order of several scheduled conversations, orthe like.

The communication interface may analyze the subject matter of the vocalemissions and/or previous conversations using a language analysisalgorithm. In an embodiment, the communication interface may weight theresults from a plurality of language analysis algorithms to determinethe subject matter of the vocal emissions and/or previous conversations.The communication interface may reject an identification of the entityof interest if a confidence score is below a predetermined threshold. Ifthe identification is rejected, the communication interface may promptthe user to specify the entity of interest. The communication interfacemay suggest a most likely candidate (e.g., one with a highest confidencescore) when prompting the user. In an embodiment, the communicationinterface may use the language of the vocal emissions to help identifythe entity of interest.

The communication interface may be configured to identify the entity ofinterest solely in response to the vocal emissions without thehands-free intercom first receiving a tactile input. Alternatively, orin addition, the communication interface may determine whether the userwould like to communicate using the hands-free intercom without firstreceiving a predetermined phrase. The communication interface maydetermine whether the user is talking to an entity other than the user'sself, e.g., based on the subject matter of the user's utterances. Thecommunication interface may determine whether the user is talking to anonresponsive object, such as a plant.

The communication interface may be configured to determine whether ornot the entity of interest is within listening range of the user and maycommunicatively couple the user to the entity of interest if the entityof interest is not within listening range. The communication interfacemay determine whether the entity of interest is within listening rangebased on responsive vocal emissions and/or the lack thereof by theentity of interest. The communication interface may determine whetherthe entity of interest is within listening range based on responsivemotion from the entity of interest (e.g., head motion, body motion, eyemotion, etc.). The communication interface may determine whether theentity of interest is within listening range based on a measured volumeof the vocal emissions (e.g., a volume measured by a directionalmicrophone near the user, a volume measured by a directional microphonenear the entity of interest, etc.). The communication interface maydetermine whether the entity of interest is within listening range basedon whether entities of interest were able to hear vocal emissions by theuser in previous instances under similar circumstances.

The communication interface may select the entity of interest from amongone or more entities being tracked by the user-tracking sensor and/or aplurality of user-tracking sensors. The user-tracking sensor and/orplurality of user-tracking sensors may occupy a plurality of locationsand/or structures. The communication interface may select the entity ofinterest from among one or more entities that nominally occupy astructure, such as a structure containing the hands-free interface. Thecommunication interface may select the entity of interest from among oneor more entities on a contact list, such as a cell phone contact list, amember/employee list for an organization, and/or the like, and/or fromamong a user-identified set of entities from the contact list (e.g., aset smaller than the entire contact list). The communication interfacemay select the entity of interest from among family members of the user.In some embodiments, the entity of interest may be a domesticatedanimal, such as a pet. The communication interface may select the entityof interest from among frequently contacted entities. The communicationinterface may identify the user, for example, based on a spoken name,vocal characteristics, a code phrase, facial recognition, and/or thelike. The entity of interest may be identified based on which user isusing the hands-free intercom.

The communication interface may be configured to determine thecommunication device to which to couple based on an identity of theentity of interest, a location of the entity of interest, and/or thelike. The communication interface may be configured to determine whetherthe entity of interest is located in a structure containing thehands-free intercom, a structure containing another hands-free intercom,a home, a workplace, a vehicle, and/or the like. The communicationinterface may be configured to determine whether the entity of interestis accessible via a computer system, such as if the entity of interestis logged into a computer communication service. The communicationinterface may be configured to determine whether a mobile communicationdevice of the entity of interest (e.g., a cell phone, tablet, etc.) iscommunicatively coupled to a wireless network. If the communicationdevice is external to the hands-free intercom, external to a structurein which the user is located, and/or the like, the communicationinterface may encrypt the communicative coupling.

The communication device of the entity of interest may be part of thehands-free intercom. For example, another directional microphone andanother directional sound emitter may couple the entity of interest tothe user. The communication interface may locate the entity of interestusing the user-tracking sensor. For example, the user-tracking sensormay identify the entity of interest based on a gait, a breathing sound,a breathing rate, facial recognition, and/or the like. The communicationinterface may locate the entity of interest based on a location of amobile communication device of the entity of interest, for example, bydetecting the location of wireless transmission by the mobilecommunication device, by receiving the location from the mobilecommunication device, by using a phone number of the mobilecommunications device, and/or the like. The communication interface maylocate the entity of interest based on a beacon coupled to the entity ofinterest, such as a beacon configured to transmit a signal (e.g., aradio frequency signal, an infrared signal, an electromagnetic signal,an ultrasonic signal, etc.), a beacon configured to distinctivelyreflect a signal, and/or the like. The communication interface maylocate the entity of interest by tracking which doorways the entity ofinterest has traversed (e.g., by tracking the last doorway traversed bythe entity of interest). The hands-free intercom may include sensorsconfigured to detect passage of the entity of interest through doorways.Once the entity of interest is located, the communication interface maycouple the user to a directional microphone and directional soundemitter closest to the entity of interest. Alternatively, thecommunication interface may couple the user to a cell phone, work phone,internet phone or communication service, and/or the like, for example,if the entity of interest is not near a user interface of the hands-freeintercom. Accordingly, the communications interface may connect to theentity of interest's communication device via an existing communicationsnetwork, such as a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, the internet, awired network, a wireless network, etc. In an embodiment, thecommunication device of the entity of interest can interact with theuser's communication interface without consideration that the user isemploying a hands-free intercom, e.g., just as it would interact with awired or wireless phone.

The communication interface may be configured to summon the entity ofinterest to a nearest communication device. The communication interfacemay summon the entity of interest by playing a loud, undirected sound(such as a name, vocal emissions from the user, a tone, etc.) from asound emitter nearest the entity of interest, by transmitting a textmessage, by transmitting an email, and/or the like. The communicationdevice may receive a communications request from the communicationsinterface and may summon the entity of interest via summoning signalsfrom the device, such as ringtones, vibrations, lights, etc. Thecommunication device may include a mobile communication device, thehands-free intercom, another hands-free intercom, a computer system,and/or the like.

The communication interface may be configured to determine theavailability of the entity of interest. The communication interface mayreport the determined availability to the user (e.g., using a visualindication, an audible indication, etc.). In some embodiments, thedetermined availability may be reported only if the entity of interestis unavailable. The availability may include available, occupied, in acall, and/or the like. The communication interface may update the useron the availability of the entity of interest when the availabilitychanges.

The communication interface may be configured to record vocal emissionsfrom the user (e.g., the vocal emissions used to identify the entity ofinterest) and deliver the recorded vocal emissions after identificationof the entity of interest. In some embodiments, the communicationinterface may strip-out identification phrases before delivering thebody of the message. In other embodiments, the identification materialforms part of the body of the message and can be analyzed, used toidentify and connect to the entity of interest, and then delivered tohim. The communication interface may disguise a connection delay frombeing observable by the entity of interest. The communication interfacemay deliver an audio indication to the user prior to delivery of therecorded vocal emissions to the entity of interest. The audio indicationmay include a contact status indicator associated with the communicationdevice, such as a ringing a sound, a busy sound, and/or the like. Thecommunication interface may be configured to mute, pause, terminate,etc. the communicative coupling responsive to a vocal command by theuser, a gesture by the user (e.g., a facial gesture, an arm gesture, ahand gesture, etc.), and/or the like. The communication interface mayalso, or instead, be configured to mute, pause, terminate, etc. thecommunicative coupling responsive to a command from the entity ofinterest, such as a vocal command, an electronic signal from thecommunication device, and/or the like. The hands-free intercom mayindicate to the user when the communicative coupling is paused and/orterminated.

The communication interface may receive a request from a remote entityto communicatively couple to the user. The communication interface maydetermine whether to couple the remote entity to the user, for example,based on one or more access rules. The communication interface maydetermine whether to couple the remote entity to the user based on whichroom the user is occupying (e.g., a bedroom, a bathroom, an office, akitchen, etc.), based on an activity of the user (e.g., an activitydetermined by the user-tracking sensor), based on a time of day, basedon a day of the week, and/or the like. In an embodiment, the accessrules may include room-specific time restrictions. The communicationinterface may be configured to determine whether to couple the remoteentity to the user based on an identity of the remote entity. Forexample, the communication interface may connect the remote entitywithout prompting, refuse the request to couple, prompt the user onwhether to couple, and/or the like depending on the identity of theremote entity. The communication interface may determine whether tocouple the remote entity to the user based on an identity of the user.

The communication interface may determine whether to couple the remoteentity by prompting the user, and/or the communication interface maydetermine whether to prompt the user based on access rules. The user mayaccept the communicative coupling with a vocal command, a gesture (e.g.,a facial gesture, an arm gesture, a hand gesture, etc.), and/or thelike. The user may be able to accept a communication without speaking oreven responding to the communication. For example, the remote entity maydeliver a communication without expecting a response, and/or the usermay be unable to respond to communications. In an embodiment, the usermay be an appliance, and the communication interface may determinewhether the remote entity can couple to the appliance. In an embodiment,the remote entity may be an appliance, and the communication interfacemay determine whether the user can couple to the appliance (e.g.,whether he is authorized to do so).

The communication interface may be configured to determine whether tocouple the remote entity to the user based on a subject matter of therequest, an urgency level, a user status received from an electroniccalendar, an indication of user availability received from the user,and/or the like. The communication interface may be configured to promptthe user periodically to update the indication of user availability whenthe user has indicated unavailability. The communication interface mayreceive an indication of a user-specified period for prompting at thetime the user indicates unavailability. The communication interface maydetermine whether to couple the remote entity to the user based onwhether the user is alone, based on an identity of a person near theuser, based on a relationship between the remote entity and the personnear the user, based on a relationship between a subject matter and theperson near the user, and/or the like. The communication interface maybe configured to determine whether to forward the request to a userdevice when the user is out of range of the sound emitter. Thecommunication interface may determine whether to forward the requestbased on the user device to which the request would be forwarded, basedon an identity of the remote entity, and/or the like.

The user-tracking sensor may be configured to detect an eavesdropper.The hands-free intercom may warn the user when an eavesdropper ispresent. The hands-free intercom may produce an audio indication that aneavesdropper is present (e.g., a tone, a buzz, a vocal indication,etc.), a visual indication that an eavesdropper is present (e.g., alight, etc.), and/or the like. The communication interface may refuse tocommunicatively couple when an eavesdropper is present. Theuser-tracking sensor may be configured to detect eavesdroppers in thesame room as the user, to detect eavesdroppers within a listening rangeof the user (e.g., to detect eavesdroppers outside a doorway of a roomwith the user), and/or the like. The user-tracking sensor may beconfigured to continuously monitor for eavesdroppers duringcommunicative coupling.

The hands-free intercom may be configured to automatically receive callhandoffs, for example, from mobile communication devices. Thecommunication interface may be configured to determine the user iscommunicatively coupled to a remote entity via a mobile communicationdevice of the user. The communication interface may be configured tocommunicatively couple the directional microphone and/or the directionalsound emitter to a communication device of the remote entity.

In an embodiment, the communication interface may be configured tocommunicatively couple the directional microphone and/or the directionalsound emitter to the user's mobile communication device tocommunicatively couple them with the remote entity. For example, thedirectional microphone and/or directional sound emitter may beconfigured to act as peripherals for the user's mobile communicationdevice, and the user's mobile communication device may treat them assuch. The communication interface may be configured to communicativelycouple the directional microphone and/or directional sound emitter tothe user's mobile communication device using a short distance wirelessprotocol, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc. The communication interface maybe configured to pair with the mobile communication device prior tocoupling.

The communication interface may instruct the user's mobile communicationdevice to disable a local microphone and/or a local sound emitterbefore, during, or after coupling. The communication interface mayinstruct the user's mobile communication device to perform one or moreactions to save power. The one or more actions may include dimming adisplay, turning off a display, reducing communication with a serviceprovider, and/or the like. The communication interface may compare thequality of the communicative coupling of the directional microphoneand/or directional sound emitter with the remote entity's communicationdevice to the quality of the communicative coupling of the user's mobilecommunication device with the remote entity's communication device. Thecommunication interface may perform the comparison before terminatingthe communicative coupling between the user's mobile communicationdevice and the remote entity's communication device and/or beforeinstructing the user's mobile communication device to disable the localmicrophone and/or local sound emitter.

In some embodiments, the communication interface may be configured tocommunicatively couple the directional microphone and/or the directionalsound emitter to the remote entity's communication device over acommunication network without routing communications through the mobilecommunication device of the user. The communication interface maytransmit a request to the user's mobile communication device to transferthe communicative coupling with the remote entity. The user's mobilecommunication device may provide the request to a service provider.Alternatively, or in addition, the communication interface may transmitthe request to transfer the communicative coupling directly and/orindirectly to the service provider. The communication interface mayverify with the service provider that the user's mobile communicationdevice is proximate to the communication interface and/or may verifythat the user's mobile communication device has provided permission tohand off the coupling. The service provider may also, or instead, verifyproximity and/or permission to hand off directly with the user's mobilecommunication device.

The communication interface may be configured to communicatively couplewith the user's mobile communication device and route communicationsbetween the user's mobile communication device and the remote entity'scommunication device (e.g., while the user is still interfacing with thelocal microphone and/or local sound emitter of the user's mobilecommunication device). The communication interface may nextcommunicatively couple the directional microphone and/or directionalsound emitter to the communication device of the remote entity. Thecommunication interface may then disconnect the user's mobilecommunication device from the remote entity's communication device. Thecommunication interface may communicatively couple with the user'smobile communication device using a wireless network protocol (e.g.,Wi-Fi, etc.), a mobile communication device protocol (e.g., a cellularprotocol, such as Wi-MAX, LTE, etc.), and/or the like. In an embodiment,the communication interface may act as a cellular base station for theuser's mobile communication device. Alternatively, the communicationinterface may initially couple the directional microphone and/ordirection sound emitter with the mobile communication device prior todirectly coupling with the remote entity.

The communication interface may determine the user is communicativelycoupled to the remote entity by detecting vocal emissions by the user(e.g., using the directional microphone). For example, the communicationinterface may determine the user is communicatively coupled to theremote entity based on the content of the vocal emissions.Alternatively, or in addition, the communication interface may determinethe user is communicatively coupled to the remote entity by receiving anindication from the user-tracking sensor that the remote entity isoutside of listening distance of the user, by receiving an indicationfrom the user-tracking sensor of the position of the user's mobilecommunication device (e.g., next the user's ear), by prompting theuser's mobile communication device for a status, by receiving anotification from the user's mobile communication device, and/or thelike. The notification may be transmitted by the user's mobilecommunication device in response to a transmission by the communicationinterface of its availability to couple. The transmission by thecommunication interface may be sent directly to the user's mobilecommunication device, may be sent indirectly (e.g., via a serviceprovider) to the user's mobile communication device, may be broadcast toa plurality of devices within listening range, may be transmitteddirectionally to the user's mobile communication device, and/or thelike.

The communication interface may be coupled, paired, and/or the like withthe user's mobile communication device prior to the user coupling withthe remote entity and/or a decision to hand off a coupling. Thecommunication interface may be configured to determine the user iscommunicatively coupled to the remote entity by receiving a wake-upnotification from the user's mobile communication device, by receiving anotification from the user's mobile communication device withoutprompting, by receiving data intended for the directional sound emitterfrom the user's mobile communication device, by receiving a request fromthe user's mobile communication device for data (e.g., vocal emissions)from the directional microphone, and/or the like.

The communication interface may determine the directional microphoneand/or directional sound emitter should be communicatively coupled tothe remote entity's communication device based on a user gesturedetected by the user-tracking sensor. The communication interface maydetermine the directional microphone and/or directional sound emittershould be communicatively coupled to the remote entity based on vocalemissions received by the directional microphone and/or the localmicrophone. The vocal emissions may indicate that the directionalmicrophone and/or directional sound emitter should be communicativelycoupled to the remote entity. Alternatively, or in addition, the user'smobile communication device may be configured to determine when tocommunicatively couple the directional microphone and/or directionalsound emitter to the remote entity. For example, the user's mobilecommunication device may receive a user input and/or may automaticallydetermine the directional microphone and/or directional sound emittershould be communicatively coupled to the remote entity.

The communication interface may update the user's mobile communicationdevice and/or a service provider with a status of a communicativecoupling of the directional microphone and/or directional sound emitterwith the user and/or the remote entity. The communication interface maytransmit a notification to the user's mobile communication device and/orthe service provider that the directional microphone and/or thedirectional sound emitter are or are not communicatively coupled to theuser. The communication interface may transmit a notification to theuser's mobile communication device and/or the service provider that thedirectional microphone and/or the directional sound emitter are notavailable to be communicatively coupled to the user (e.g., to inform theuser's mobile communication device and/or the service provider not toattempt a hand-off).

The communication interface may terminate the communicative couplingbetween the remote entity and the directional microphone and/ordirectional sound emitter, may hand off the communicative coupling toanother directional microphone and/or another directional sound emitter,and/or may hand off the communicative coupling back to the user's mobilecommunication device under certain circumstances. For example, thecommunication interface may determine that the user is leaving the rangeof the directional microphone and/or the directional sound emitter(e.g., by using the user-tracking sensor, by analyzing the amplitude ofvocal emissions, and/or the like). The communication interface and/orthe user-tracking sensor may be configured to predict a likelihood thatthe user will leave the range, to predict a time at which the user willleave the range, and/or the like. The communication interface and/or theuser-tracking sensor may determine the user is leaving the range basedon at least one of a location of the user, a direction of motion of theuser, a velocity of the user, and/or the like. The communicationinterface and/or the directional microphone may be configured todetermine the user is leaving the range based on a sound qualityreceived by the directional microphone.

The communication interface may also, or instead, determine that theuser's mobile communication device is leaving the range of acommunicative coupling between the communication interface and theuser's mobile communication device and/or that another cellular basestation would provide a stronger cellular signal. The user may indicatethat the communicative coupling between the directional microphoneand/or the directional sound emitter and remote entity's communicationdevice should be terminated and/or handed off. For example, theuser-tracking sensor may be configured to receive a user gesture and/orthe directional microphone may be configured to receive vocal emissionsindicating the communicative coupling should be terminated and/or handedoff.

The directional sound emitter may alert the user prior to terminatingthe communicative coupling between the directional microphone and/ordirectional sound emitter and the remote entity. The communicationinterface may be configured to determine whether the user stays withinthe range of the directional microphone, directional sound emitter,and/or communication interface in response to the alert (e.g., by usingthe user-tracking sensor, by analyzing the amplitude of vocal emissions,by monitoring signal strength, and/or the like). The communicationinterface may be configured to indicate to the user's mobilecommunication device and/or a service provider that the communicativecoupling between the directional microphone and/or directional soundemitter and the remote entity's communication device is beingterminated. The communication interface may be configured to indicate tothe user's mobile communication device and/or a service provider that acommunicative coupling should be established between the user's mobilecommunication device and the remote entity's communication device.

The user's mobile communication device may be configured to determinethat the communicative coupling between the directional microphoneand/or the directional sound emitter and the remote entity should beterminated and/or handed off. The user's mobile communication device maynotify the communication interface to terminate and/or hand off thecommunicative coupling, and/or the user's mobile communication devicemay terminate and/or recover the communicative coupling itself. Theuser's mobile communication device may be configured to determine thecommunication interface is out of range and/or out of communicativecontact, to determine a cellular signal from another cellular basestation is stronger than the signal from the communication interface, todetermine a sound quality of the communicative coupling between thedirectional microphone and/or directional sound emitter and the remoteentity's communication device is below a predetermined threshold, toreceive a user indication that the communicative coupling should beterminated and/or handed off, and/or the like.

The communication interface may be configured to determine whether theuser has rights to use the directional microphone and/or the directionalsound emitter. The communication interface may determine whether theuser has rights based on an identifier received from the user's mobilecommunication device; based on a previous coupling with the user'smobile communication device; based on whether the communicationinterface and the user's mobile communication device are paired; basedon an identity of the user; based on facial recognition of the userperformed by, e.g., the user-tracking sensor; based on vocal emissionsfrom the user (e.g., based on voice recognition performed on the vocalemissions, based on a code phrase in the vocal emissions, etc.); basedon a gesture detected by, e.g., the user-tracking sensor; and/or thelike.

The hands-free intercom may be configured to automatically connect auser to an appliance. The communication interface may be configured tocommunicatively couple the directional microphone and/or directionalsound emitter to the appliance. The user may indicate to which appliancethe communication interface should couple. For example, theuser-tracking sensor may detect a user gesture indicating an appliance,the directional microphone may detect a vocal emission including a vocalidentification of an appliance (e.g., a vocal identification preceded byvocalized keyword), and/or the like. The communication interface maycommunicatively couple the user to the appliance in response to theindication of which appliance.

The appliance may include a laundry washing machine, a laundry dryingmachine, a dish washing machine, a refrigerator, a freezer, a waterheater, a thermostat, a furnace, an air conditioner, an oven, a range, amicrowave oven, a coffee machine, a rice cooker, a bathtub, a shower, analarm clock, a home control center, an outdoor sprinkler system, anelectrical energy storage system, an electrical charging system, asecurity control system, a door lock, a room light, a window covering, awater softener, and/or the like. The appliance may include a television,a radio, a stereo, a projector, a DVD player, a video game console, adigital video recorder, a home theater system, a home entertainmentsystem, and/or the like. The appliance may include a printer, a copymachine, a fax machine, a computer, a message center, an answeringmachine, and/or the like.

The directional microphone may receive vocal emissions from the userintended for the appliance. The vocal emissions may include a request tochange a setting of the appliance. The vocal emissions may include arequest for the appliance to start an activity, such as preheating anoven, washing a plurality of objects, drying a plurality of objects,changing a temperature of a room, turning on a television, playing asong, recording a television program, starting to fill a bathtub,locking a door, sending an email, printing a document, playing answeringmachine messages, and/or the like. The request may indicate theappliance should notify the user when the activity is completed (e.g.,notify the user via the directional sound emitter). The request mayindicate a time period for which the activity should be performed.

The vocal emissions from the user may include a request for a status ofthe appliance. The status may include a current activity being performedby the appliance, a time to complete an activity, a time to complete allactivities, and/or the like. One appliance may request information fromanother appliance to determine the time to complete an activity and/orall activities. For example, the appliance may be a laundry washingmachine, and the laundry washing machine may request a drying time froma laundry drying machine. Alternatively, or in addition, the appliancemay be a water heater, and the water heater may request a roomtemperature from a thermostat. The information may be requested via thecommunication interface and/or directly from the other appliance.

The vocal emissions from the user may include a request to changesettings of the appliance. The request may include a request to repeatan activity an additional time (e.g., repeating a wash cycle, a rinsecycle, a spin cycle, a drying cycle, etc.). The request may include arequest to minimize a time to completion. The appliance may shorten oneor more activities to complete task faster. The communication interfacemay automatically instruct the appliance to change settings, forexample, based on an activity of the user (e.g., an activity determinedby a user-tracking sensor), a location of the user, and/or the like. Thecommunication interface may instruct a thermostat to change one or moreroom temperatures based on the location of the user, instruct a waterheater to change water temperature based on a location of the user,instruct a dish and/or laundry washing and/or drying machine to target aparticular completion time based on a location of the user, and/or thelike. The vocal emissions from the user may include a request to stop anactivity.

The appliance may be configured to report information to the user viathe communication interface and/or the directional sound emitter. Theuser may respond to the reported information (e.g., vocally) by, interalia, requesting a reminder after an indicated time, request a reminderwhen the user changes rooms, and/or the like. The reported informationmay include that an activity and/or task has been completed. Thereported information may include that a consumable substance is low. Theconsumable substance may include soap, bleach, drying agent, staticremoving agent, fuel, salt, paper, ink, etc. The reported informationmay include a reminder of current settings, such as an indication thatan oven is on, that a door is locked, etc. Alternatively, or inaddition, the communication interface may determine the information toreport to the user. The communication interface and/or directional soundemitter may deliver a notification of a change in activity, such as anindication a thermostat is changing a target temperature according to apredetermined schedule, an indication that a current appliance cycle haschanged, and/or the like.

The communication interface and/or directional sound emitter may delivera request for permission to change settings. The request may be from thecommunication interface, the appliance, another user, and/or the like.For example, the appliance and/or communication interface may determinethat the settings should be changed based on a sensor measurement. Theappliance and/or communication interface may determine that anadditional activity is needed (e.g., an extra wash cycle, rinse cycle,spin cycle, drying cycle, extra drying time, etc.). The communicationinterface and/or directional sound emitter may indicate an additionaltime required to complete an activity and/or task if settings arechanged, for example, by the user, the other user, the appliance, thecommunication interface, etc. The appliance, communication interface,and/or directional sound emitter may be configured to deliver a reportof an error with the appliance. The vocal emissions from the user mayinclude a user command to the appliance in response to the reportederror. The appliance, communication interface, and/or directional soundemitter may deliver a request for permission to contact a maintenanceprovider. The user may respond (e.g., vocally) to indicate whetherpermission is granted or not.

The communication interface may be configured to determine whether theappliance is permitted to communicate with the user. The communicationinterface may evaluate user settings to determine whether the applianceis permitted to communicate with the user. The communication interfacemay determine whether the appliance is permitted to communicate with theuser based on time of day, user location (e.g., a location determined bythe user-tracking sensor), a user indication of availability, whetheranother person is with the user, an identity of the appliance, anidentity of the user, and/or the like. The communication interface maydetermine that the user is accessible via a mobile user device and maydetermine whether the appliance is permitted to have communicationsforwarded to a mobile user device.

The communication interface may determine based on context whether theappliance is permitted to communicate with the user. The communicationinterface may determine whether the user requested the communicationfrom the appliance, may determine historical user behavior in similarsituations, and/or the like. The communication interface may determinewhether the appliance is permitted to communicate with the user based onuser activity (e.g., an activity determined by the user-trackingsensor). For example, the user-tracking sensor may determine whether theuser is sleeping, and the communication interface may determine whethercommunication is permitted based on whether the user is sleeping. Theuser-tracking sensor may determine whether the appliance is permitted tocommunicate with the user based on a type of communication from theappliance. The communication interface may allow certain types ofcommunications, such as urgent maintenance requests, notifications ofactivity and/or task complete, etc., despite other factors weighingagainst permitting communication. The communication interface may decideto notify the user of a detected and/or suspected leak despite the usersleeping, the time being 3:00 AM, and/or the like.

The communication interface may determine whether the user is permittedto communicate with the appliance. The communication interface maydetermine whether communication is permitted based on settings by aprimary user, based on an identity of the user, based on whether theuser instructed the appliance to begin its current activity, and/or thelike. The communication interface may identify the user by performingvoice recognition on vocal emissions received by the directionalmicrophone and/or communication interface. The communication interfacemay determine whether communication is permitted based on securityinformation provided by the user (e.g., a passcode, a password, apassphrase, a gesture, etc.). The communication interface may determinewhether communication is permitted based on a location of the user. Forexample, a remotely located user may be prevented from communicated withthe appliance, and/or only some users may be permitted to communicatewith appliances while remotely located. The communication interface maydetermine whether communication is permitted based on a type ofcommunication. Certain users may be able to request and receive statusinformation but may be prevented from delivering commands, e.g., toperform an activity and/or task, change a setting, etc.

The communication interface may determine whether a first appliance ispermitted to communicate with a second appliance. The communicationinterface may evaluate user settings to determine whetherinter-appliance communication is permitted. The communication interfacemay determine whether is communication is permitted based on a type ofcommunication. For example, appliances may be able to request andreceive status information but may be prevented from delivering commandsand/or prevented from making updates or changes to software and/orfirmware. The communication interface may determine whethercommunication is permitted based on an identity of the first applianceand/or an identity of the second appliance. The communication interfacemay be configured to record and store copies of communications betweenthe appliance and the user of the hands-free intercom; such recordingsmay include metadata, such as time of day, appliance settings, locationand/or activity of the user, etc. The communication interface may recordcommunications between appliances.

Various divisions of labor between the appliance and the communicationinterface are contemplated. In an embodiment, the communicationinterface may transmit all communications it receives to the appliance,and the appliance may determine access rights for the communications.The communication interface may be configured to convert vocal emissions(e.g., audio representations thereof) into messages understood by theappliance. Alternatively, or in addition, the communication interfacemay deliver vocal emissions (e.g., audio representations thereof) to theappliance, and the appliance may be configured to decipher the vocalemissions (e.g., audio representations thereof). The communicationinterface may be configured to convert messages from the appliance intoan audible and/or user-interpretable form, and/or the appliance may beconfigured to deliver audible and/or user-interpretable messages to thecommunication interface. The appliance may be configured to receive andrespond to communications from the communication interface.Alternatively, or in addition, the communication interface may directlyretrieve information from and/or write information to a non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of the appliance, and/or thecommunication interface may be configured to request and deliverinformation via an application programming interface (API) of theappliance.

The hands-free intercom may occupy one or more houses, apartments,office buildings, warehouses, restaurants, stores, malls, outdoorfacilities, transportation facilities, hospitals, and/or the like. Thehands-free intercom may be located indoors and/or outdoors. Thehands-free intercom may include a persistent storage device forautomatically recording a conversation between the user and the entityof interest. Alternatively, or in addition, the persistent storagedevice may store a transcription of the conversation. The communicationinterface may automatically transmit the recording to the participants.The entity of interest and/or remote entity may include a person, anappliance, a computer system, and/or the like. The user may include aperson, an appliance, a computer system, and/or the like.

Embodiments may include various steps, which may be embodied inmachine-executable instructions to be executed by a computer system. Acomputer system includes one or more general-purpose or special-purposecomputers (or other electronic devices). The computer system may includehardware components that include specific logic for performing the stepsor may include a combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware.

Embodiments may also be provided as a computer program product includinga computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that maybe used to program a computer system or other electronic device toperform the processes described herein. The computer-readable medium mayinclude, but is not limited to: hard drives, floppy diskettes, opticaldisks, CD ROMs, DVD ROMs, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic oroptical cards, solid-state memory devices, or other types ofmedia/computer-readable media suitable for storing electronicinstructions.

Computer systems and the computers in a computer system may be connectedvia a network. Suitable networks for configuration and/or use asdescribed herein include one or more local area networks, wide areanetworks, metropolitan area networks, and/or “Internet” or IP networks,such as the World Wide Web, a private Internet, a secure Internet, avalue-added network, a virtual private network, an extranet, anintranet, or even standalone machines which communicate with othermachines by physical transport of media (a so-called “sneakernet”). Inparticular, a suitable network may be formed from parts or entireties oftwo or more other networks, including networks using disparate hardwareand network communication technologies.

One suitable network includes a server and several clients; othersuitable networks may contain other combinations of servers, clients,and/or peer-to-peer nodes, and a given computer system may function bothas a client and as a server. Each network includes at least twocomputers or computer systems, such as the server and/or clients. Acomputer system may include a workstation, laptop computer,disconnectable mobile computer, server, mainframe, cluster, so-called“network computer” or “thin client,” tablet, smart phone, personaldigital assistant or other hand-held computing device, “smart” consumerelectronics device or appliance, medical device, or a combinationthereof.

The network may include communications or networking software, such asthe software available from Novell, Microsoft, Artisoft, and othervendors, and may operate using TCP/IP, SPX, IPX, and other protocolsover twisted pair, coaxial, or optical fiber cables, telephone lines,radio waves, satellites, microwave relays, modulated AC power lines,physical media transfer, and/or other data transmission “wires” known tothose of skill in the art. The network may encompass smaller networksand/or be connectable to other networks through a gateway or similarmechanism.

Each computer system includes at least a processor and a memory;computer systems may also include various input devices and/or outputdevices. The processor may include a general purpose device, such as anIntel®, AMD®, or other “off-the-shelf” microprocessor. The processor mayinclude a special purpose processing device, such as an ASIC, SoC, SiP,FPGA, PAL, PLA, FPLA, PLD, or other customized or programmable device.The memory may include static RAM, dynamic RAM, flash memory, one ormore flip-flops, ROM, CD-ROM, disk, tape, magnetic, optical, or othercomputer storage medium. The input device(s) may include a keyboard,mouse, touch screen, light pen, tablet, microphone, sensor, or otherhardware with accompanying firmware and/or software. The outputdevice(s) may include a monitor or other display, printer, speech ortext synthesizer, switch, signal line, or other hardware withaccompanying firmware and/or software.

The computer systems may be capable of using a floppy drive, tape drive,optical drive, magneto-optical drive, or other means to read a storagemedium. A suitable storage medium includes a magnetic, optical, or othercomputer-readable storage device having a specific physicalconfiguration. Suitable storage devices include floppy disks, harddisks, tape, CD-ROMs, DVDs, PROMs, random access memory, flash memory,and other computer system storage devices. The physical configurationrepresents data and instructions which cause the computer system tooperate in a specific and predefined manner as described herein.

Suitable software to assist in implementing the invention is readilyprovided by those of skill in the pertinent art(s) using the teachingspresented here and programming languages and tools, such as Java,Pascal, C++, C, database languages, APIs, SDKs, assembly, firmware,microcode, and/or other languages and tools. Suitable signal formats maybe embodied in analog or digital form, with or without error detectionand/or correction bits, packet headers, network addresses in a specificformat, and/or other supporting data readily provided by those of skillin the pertinent art(s).

Several aspects of the embodiments described will be illustrated assoftware modules or components. As used herein, a software module orcomponent may include any type of computer instruction or computerexecutable code located within a memory device. A software module may,for instance, include one or more physical or logical blocks of computerinstructions, which may be organized as a routine, program, object,component, data structure, etc., that perform one or more tasks orimplement particular abstract data types.

In certain embodiments, a particular software module may includedisparate instructions stored in different locations of a memory device,different memory devices, or different computers, which togetherimplement the described functionality of the module. Indeed, a modulemay include a single instruction or many instructions, and may bedistributed over several different code segments, among differentprograms, and across several memory devices. Some embodiments may bepracticed in a distributed computing environment where tasks areperformed by a remote processing device linked through a communicationsnetwork. In a distributed computing environment, software modules may belocated in local and/or remote memory storage devices. In addition, databeing tied or rendered together in a database record may be resident inthe same memory device, or across several memory devices, and may belinked together in fields of a record in a database across a network.

Much of the infrastructure that can be used according to the presentinvention is already available, such as: general purpose computers;computer programming tools and techniques; computer networks andnetworking technologies; digital storage media; authentication; accesscontrol; and other security tools and techniques provided by publickeys, encryption, firewalls, and/or other means.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a user 150 interacting with a hands-freeintercom 100. The hands-free intercom 100 may include a user-trackingsensor 110, a directional microphone 120, and a directional soundemitter 130. The directional sound emitter 130 may include a pluralityof ultrasonic speakers 131, 132. The user-tracking sensor 110 maydetermine the location of the user 150. In some embodiments, theuser-tracking sensor 110 may also determine the identity of the user150. The user-tracking sensor 110 may comprise one or more cameras, oneor more microphones (which may include directional microphone 120), aradar sensor, an ultrasonic sonar sensor (which may include elements ofdirectional sound emitter 130), or the like. The directional microphone120 and directional sound emitter 130 may target the user 150 based onlocation information received from the user-tracking sensor 110. Thedirectional microphone 120 may maximize reception of audio from thedirection of the user 150 and/or the user's mouth while minimizingreception of audio from other directions. The directional microphone 120may be steered mechanically and/or may include a phased array and/ormetamaterial array to produce the directional reception.

The directional sound emitter 130 may emit ultrasonic sound waves fromthe plurality of ultrasonic speakers 131, 132. The plurality ofultrasonic speakers 131, 132 may be aimed so that the ultrasonic soundwaves frequency convert to audible frequencies at or near the user'sears. For example, the ultrasonic sound waves may be modulated so as toproduce audio of interest in the beat frequency created when the wavesinterfere. Alternatively, or in addition, the ultrasonic sound waves maybe downshifted in the air and/or in a material in or on the user 150.The directional sound emitter 130 may be configured to maximize thevolume of audible sound waves at or near the user 150 while minimizingthe volume of audible sound waves in other locations. If the user 150moves, the hands-free intercom 100 may reorient the directionalmicrophone 120 and directional sound emitter 130 towards the user's newposition. The directional sound emitter 130 or individual ultrasonicspeakers 131, 132 may be steered mechanically and/or may include aphased array and/or metamaterial array to produce the directionalemission.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a pair of users 251, 252 communicatingusing a hands-free intercom 200. A first user 251 may make a gestureand/or vocal emissions that indicate he wishes to speak with the seconduser 252. A first user interface 210 including a first user-trackingsensor 211, a first directional microphone 212, and a first directionalsound emitter 213 may detect the gesture and/or vocal emissions. Thehands-free intercom 200 may analyze the gesture and/or vocal emissionsto determine to whom the first user 251 is interested in speaking. Forexample, the first user 251 may say, “Have you heard back about your jobinterview?” and the hands-free intercom 200 may determine that thesecond user 252 had discussed a job interview with the first user 251two days prior. Accordingly, the hands-free intercom 200 may decide tocouple the first user 251 to the second user 252 and/or may prompt thefirst user 251 as to whether the second user 252 is the desiredrecipient.

Once the hands-free intercom 200 has determined that the first user 251wishes to speak to the second user 252, the hands-free intercom 200 maylocate the second user 252. The hands-free intercom 200 may locate thesecond user 252, for example, with user-tracking sensors 221 on one ormore user interfaces 210, 220. The hands-free intercom 200 may thencouple the directional microphone 222 and directional sound emitter 223of the second user interface 220 to the directional microphone 212 anddirectional sound emitter 213 of the first user interface 210 so theusers 251, 252 are able to communicate. There may be some delay whilethe hands-free intercom 200 analyzes the vocal emissions of the firstuser 251, identifies the second user 252, locates the second user 252,and communicatively couples the first user 251 to the second user 252.This delay may be hidden from the second user 252 (e.g., by deliveringthe vocal emissions offset by the delay), so the conversation appears tohappen in real time. The first user 251 may be aware of the delay, sothe hands-free intercom 200 may alert the first user 251 when the vocalemissions are delivered (e.g., by playing a ringing sound until thevocal emissions are delivered, by playing a tone once the vocalemissions are delivered, by playing the vocal emissions for the firstuser 251 as they are delivered to the second user 252, etc.). Remainingvocal emissions by the first and second users 251, 252 may be deliveredin substantially real time (e.g., only delayed by any inherent delays inthe hands-free intercom 200). The first user 251 and/or the second user251 may be able to control the communicative coupling (e.g., pause,terminate, mute, etc.) using gestures, vocal emissions, and/or the like.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system 300 for analyzing vocal emissionsto determine an entity of interest. The system 300 may include adirectional microphone 302 configured to receive vocal emissions from auser. The measured vocal emissions may be provided to a speechrecognition block 304, which may convert the vocal emissions into a formrecognizable by the computer (e.g., text, etc.). The results from thespeech recognition block 304 may be provided to a subject matteranalysis block 306. The subject matter analysis block 306 may determinea subject matter of the vocal emissions. For example, the subject matteranalysis block 306 may be coupled to an internal and/or externaldatabase 314, which may contain keywords associated with users, subjectmatters of one or more previous conversations, and/or the like.Alternatively, or in addition, the subject matter analysis block 306 maybe coupled to a website 312, such as a social media site, by acommunication interface 308. The subject matter analysis block 308 mayuse one or more language analysis algorithms in combination with datafrom the database 314 and/or website 312 to identify the entity ofinterest. The subject matter analysis block 306 may indicate theidentified entity of interest to the communication interface 308. Thecommunication interface 308 may be configured to determine a remotecommunication device 310 of the entity of interest. The communicationinterface 308 may couple the user to the remote communication device 310determined.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method 400 for a user of a hands-freeintercom to communicatively couple to an entity of interest. The method400 may begin when a user comes within range of the hands-free intercom.The hands-free intercom may determine 402 a location of the user. Thehands-free intercom may orient a directional microphone and adirectional sound emitter towards the determined location.

The hands-free intercom may measure 404 vocal emissions from the user ifthe user says something. Based on the vocal emissions, the hands-freeintercom may identify 406 the entity of interest to whom the user wishesto speak. The hands-free intercom may also be configured to determinefrom the vocal emissions if the user is not interested in using thehands-free intercom. In which case, the hands-free intercom may continueto measure 404 vocal emissions until it determines that the user isinterested in communicating to an entity of interest using thehands-free intercom.

Once an entity of interest has been identified, the entity of interestmay be located 408 by the hands-free intercom. In some embodiments, thehands-free intercom may prelocate potential entities of interest (e.g.,the user's family members, the last five entities he's communicatedwith, entities identified by his calendar or schedule, etc.) so that thespecific entity of interest may be rapidly connected to once identifiedby the user. The hands-free intercom may locate 408 the entity ofinterest using a user-tracking sensor, based on a cell phone of theuser, based on a beacon, and/or the like. The hands-free intercom maydetermine 410 an optimal communication device of the entity of interestbased on the location of the entity of interest. The hands-free intercommay communicatively couple 412 the user to the optimal communicationdevice of the entity of interest determined in step 410. Duringcommunicative coupling, the hands-free intercom may deliver 414 audioreceived from the entity of interest to the user emitting ultrasonicsound waves to the user. When the communicative coupling is terminated,the method may end.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a hands-free intercom 500 configured toapply access rules when determining whether to couple a remote entity toa user 550. The hands-free intercom 500 may include a user-trackingsensor 510, a microphone 520, and a directional sound emitter 530. Thehands-free intercom 500 may be configured to determine whether to couplea remote entity to the user based on a time, a day, a location of theuser 550, an activity of the user 550, an identity of the remote entity,and/or the like. For example, the user 550 may be in a bathroom prior to7:00 AM, so the hands-free intercom 500 may determine that a remoteentity should not be communicatively coupled to the user 550.Alternatively, or in addition, the hands-free intercom 500 may determinethat the user 550 is shaving, so the remote entity may not be coupleduntil the user 550 has finished shaving. The hands-free intercom 500 mayallow an immediate family member to contact the user 500 despite thefact the user 550 is shaving but may prevent other remote entities fromcontacting the user.

The user 550 may be able to provide verbal instructions to thehands-free intercom 500 requesting privacy. The user 550 may be able tospecify a predetermined time for the privacy, criteria for ending theprivacy period, who or what subject matters may be allowed to coupledespite the privacy request, and/or the like. The access rules and/orprivacy request may specify entities and/or subject matters that shouldbe rejected outright, entities and/or subject matters that should resultin the user being prompted to connect, and entities and/or subjectmatters that should be automatically connected without prompting. In anembodiment, the hands-free intercom 500 may notify the user 550 of anyattempted connections once the access rules no longer prohibit couplingand/or any period of requested privacy has ended. Alternatively, or inaddition, the remote entity may record a message, be instructed to callback, and/or the like.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a system 600 for determining whether tocouple a remote entity according to access rules. A communicationinterface 612 may be configured to receive a request from a remotecommunication device 614 to couple to a user. The communicationinterface 612 may be able to determine from the remote communicationdevice 614 an identity of the remote entity and/or an intended subjectmatter for the coupling. For example, the communication interface 612may prompt the communication device 614/remote entity for the subjectmatter; the communication device 614 may have determined the subjectmatter from vocal emissions from the remote entity and/or provided thevocal emissions to the communication interface 612; and/or the like.

The communication interface 612 may inform an access rules block 606 ofthe request to couple. The access rules block 606 may analyze theidentity and/or subject matter of the request to determine whether tocouple. The access rules block 606 may be coupled to one or moreuser-tracking sensors 610, which may be used to determine which room theuser is occupying and/or an activity of the user. Based on the roomand/or activity, the access rules block 606 may determine whether tocouple the remote entity to the user. The access rules block 606 may befurther coupled to a time/date block 608 configured to provide the time,date, day of the week, a user calendar, and/or the like to the accessrules block 606 for use in determining whether to couple. The time/dateblock 608 may be an internal clock, an external time source, a calendarprogram operating on a user device, and/or the like.

The access rules block 606 may use any combination of data available toit to determine whether to couple the remote entity. The access rulesblock 606 may use default rules, user-specified rules, rules learnedfrom past user behavior, and/or the like when analyzing the availabledata to determine whether to couple the remote entity to the user. Thecommunication interface 612 may communicatively couple a directionalmicrophone 602 and a directional sound emitter 604 to the remotecommunication device 614 if the access rules block 606 determines thatcoupling should be allowed.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a method 700 for determining whether tocouple a remote entity to a user. The method 700 may begin when arequest is received 702 from a remote entity desiring to communicativelycouple with the user. In response to receiving 702 the request, contextdata may be gathered 704. The context data may include the identity ofthe remote entity, a subject matter for the communicative coupling, atime, a day of the week, a user activity, a room being occupied by theuser, an activity scheduled on a user calendar, and/or the like. Thehands-free intercom may decide based on the access rules what contextdata should be gathered 704, and unnecessary context data may not begathered. Gathering 704 context data may include periodically acquiringthe context data and loading the previously acquired context data when arequest is received 702.

Based on the context data, the hands-free intercom may determine 706whether to couple the remote entity to the user. In an embodiment,access rules may be used to determine 706 whether to couple the remoteentity to the user. The access rules may include a user-specified and/ordefault set of conditions contingent on elements of the context data.Alternatively, or in addition, the hands-free intercom may compare thecontext data to user behavior when previous requests were received todetermine 706 whether to couple the remote entity to the user. Thehands-free intercom may communicatively couple 708 the remote entity tothe user if it determines that coupling should be performed. The methodmay end until another request is received.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a hands-free intercom 800 configured towarn a user 850 about an eavesdropper 870. The hands-free intercom 800may include a user-tracking sensor 810, a directional microphone 820, adirectional sound emitter 830, and an eavesdropper warning light 840.The user 850 may wish to keep some conversations private fromeavesdroppers. Accordingly, the hands-free intercom 800 may monitor foreavesdroppers and alert the user 850 when an eavesdropper 870 isdetected.

The hands-free intercom 800 may use the user-tracking sensor 810 and/oruser-tracking sensors from additional interfaces (not shown) to detectthe presence of the eavesdropper 870. Alternatively, or in addition, theuser-tracking sensor 810 may detect the presence of the eavesdropper 870based on the location of a mobile communication device of theeavesdropper 870, by tracking passage of the eavesdropper 870 throughone or more doorways, and/or the like. The hands-free intercom 800 maywarn of an eavesdropper 870 in a room other than that of the user 850 ifit determines that the eavesdropper 870 is still within a listeningrange. Accordingly, the hands-free intercom 800 may be configured tosense the presence of the eavesdropper 870 in rooms other than the roomoccupied by the user 850 (e.g., using user-tracking sensors, doorwaysensors, sensing of mobile communication devices, etc.).

The hands-free intercom 800 may warn the user 850 of the eavesdropper870 using the eavesdropper warning light 840. Alternatively, or inaddition, the hands-free intercom 800 may produce an audio indicationthat the eavesdropper 870 is present. The audio indication may be anoise, a tone, speech (e.g., computer-synthesized speech), and/or thelike. The directional sound emitter 830 may emit the audio indication soit is only audible by the user 850. In an embodiment, the hands-freeintercom 800 may refuse to complete a communicative coupling and/or maypause or terminate a communicative coupling when an eavesdropper 870 isdetected. The refusal to complete the communicative coupling may be inaddition to or instead of the warning to the user 850.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a hands-free intercom 900 configured toautomatically receive call handoffs from mobile communication devices.The hands-free intercom 900 may include a user-tracking sensor 910, adirectional microphone 920, and a directional sound emitter 930. Thedirectional sound emitter 930 may include a plurality of ultrasonicspeakers 931, 932. A user 950 may be communicating with a remote entity(not shown) using a mobile phone 970. For example, the mobile phone 970may be wirelessly coupled to a cellular base station, which maycommunicatively couple the mobile phone 970 to the remote entity'scommunication device.

It may be more convenient and/or more comfortable for the user 950 tocommunicate with the remote entity via the hands-free intercom 900.However, the user 950 may have initiated the call with the remote entityusing the mobile phone 970, for example, because the user 950 wasinitially out of range of the hands-free intercom 900. The hands-freeintercom 900 may detect that the user 950 is within range of thehands-free intercom 900 and/or may detect that the user 950 is coupledto the remote entity. For example, the user 950 may be within range ifaudible emissions from the user 950 can be detected by the directionalmicrophone 920, if audio can be delivered to the user by the directionalsound emitter 930, if the hands-free intercom 900 can wirelesslycommunicate with the mobile phone 970, and/or the like. The hands-freeintercom 900 may detect the user 950 is coupled to the remote entity bydetecting a position of the mobile phone 970 (e.g., near the user's ear,near the user's mouth, etc.) with the user-tracking sensor 910, byreceiving vocal emissions (e.g., when no other person is present) usingthe directional microphone, by communicating with the mobile phone 970,and/or the like.

The mobile phone 970 may hand off the communicative coupling with theremote entity to the hands-free intercom 900. The mobile phone 970 mayact as an intermediary that communicatively couples the hands-freeintercom 900 to the remote entity, and/or the hands-free intercom 900may communicatively couple to the remote entity without assistance fromthe mobile phone 970 after the hand-off is completed. In an embodiment,the hands-free intercom 900 may act like a peripheral device coupled tothe mobile phone 970 by, for example, a Bluetooth protocol. In anotherembodiment, the hands-free intercom 900 may request the hand-off from aservice provider. Alternatively, or in addition, the hands-free intercom900 may act as a base station, such as a cellular base station, a Voiceover Internet Protocol (VOIP) base station, etc., for the mobile phone970 in order to perform a gradual hand-off.

The hands-free intercom 900 may transition from the directionalmicrophone 920 and directional sound emitter 930 to other directionalmicrophones and directional sound emitters (not shown) as the user 950moves from one room to another. The communicative coupling may bereturned to the mobile phone 970 if the user 950 leaves the range of thehands-free intercom 900. While the hands-free intercom 900 remainscoupled to the remote entity, the hands-free intercom 900 may providesome or all of its functionality to the user 950, such as adding and/orremoving parties, recording conversation, storing keywords, terminatingthe communicative coupling, etc., and may respond to user commands(e.g., gestures, voice commands, etc.).

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a system 1000 for automatically receivingcall handoffs from mobile communication devices. The system 1000 mayinclude a communication interface 1012, which may be communicativelycoupled to a user-tracking sensor 1010. The communication interface 1012and/or the user-tracking sensor 1010 may determine that a mobilecommunication device 1008 of a user is communicatively coupled to aremote communication device 1014 of a remote entity. The communicationinterface 1010 may be configured to communicatively couple a directionalmicrophone 1002 and a directional sound emitter 1004 to the remotecommunication device 1014. Thus, the user may communicate with theremote entity without having to continue to hold or use the mobilecommunication device 1008, which may free their hands for other tasks,save on service charges, and/or the like.

In the illustrated embodiment, the communication interface 1012 couplesthe directional microphone 1002 and directional sound emitter 1004 tothe remote communication device 1014 without sending communications tothe mobile communication device 1008. For example, the communicationinterface 1012 may use plain old telephone service (POTS), the Internet,a mobile telephone service provider, and/or the like to communicate withthe remote communication device 1014. The communication interface 1012may be communicatively coupled with the mobile communication device 1008to coordinate handing off of the communicative coupling. For example,the communication interface 1012 may inform the mobile communicationdevice 1008 when it is available to receive communicative couplings,when a communicative coupling has been received, when a communicativecoupling is being returned, etc. Similarly, the mobile communicationdevice 1008 may inform the communication interface 1012 when it iscoupled to a remote entity, when it handing off a communicativecoupling, when it has received a returned communicative coupling, etc.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of a method 1100 for receiving a handoff of acommunicative coupling from a mobile device. The method 1100 may beginby determining 1102 a user is communicatively coupled to a remoteentity. Whether a user is interacting with the mobile device and/orwhether the mobile device is communicatively coupled to the remoteentity may be continuously monitored. It may be determined 1104 whethera directional microphone and/or directional sound emitter should becoupled to the remote entity. For example, the user may indicate with auser gesture or vocal emission that the directional microphone and/ordirectional sound emitter should be coupled to the remote entity, and/orthe mobile device may indicate that the directional microphone and/ordirectional sound emitter should be coupled to the remote entity.

The directional microphone and/or directional sound emitter may becommunicatively coupled 1106 to the remote entity, if it is determined1104 that they should be. For example, the directional microphone and/ordirectional sound emitter may be communicatively coupled to the mobiledevice, which may remain coupled to the remote entity. In an embodiment,a request to communicatively couple may be sent to a service provider,which may transfer the communicative coupling with the remote entityfrom the mobile device to the directional microphone and/or directionalsound emitter. Alternatively, or in addition, a communicative couplingmay be established with the remote entity, and the communicativecoupling may be distinct and/or separate from the communicative couplingbetween the remote entity and the mobile device. Before, during, orafter communicatively coupling 1106 to the remote entity, a mobiledevice microphone and/or mobile device sound emitter may be uncoupled1108 from the remote entity. The mobile device microphone and/or mobiledevice sound emitter may be disabled; the mobile device may be uncoupledfrom the remote entity; and/or the like.

The user may then communicate hands-free with the remote entity usingthe directional microphone and/or directional sound emitter. The usermay move around while communicating via the directional microphone anddirectional sound emitter. At some point, it may be determined 1110 thatthe user is leaving the range of the directional microphone and/ordirectional sound emitter (e.g., the user has gone into a differentroom). A user-tracking sensor, the quality of audio received by thedirectional microphone, a location of the mobile device, and/or the likemay be used to determine 1110 that the user is leaving the range of thedirectional microphone and/or directional sound emitter. If adirectional microphone and/or directional sound emitter closer to theuser is available, the user may be transferred 1112 to the closerdirectional microphone and/or directional sound emitter. The closerdirectional microphone and/or directional sound emitter may bedetermined based on a direction being traveled by the user, a locationof a mobile device, detection of the user by the closer directionalmicrophone and/or directional sound emitter and/or a user-trackingsensor associated with the closer directional microphone and/ordirectional sound emitter, and/or the like.

The user may leave the range of every directional microphone and/ordirectional sound emitter (e.g., by leaving a building and/or an areacontaining the directional microphones and/or directional soundemitters). Accordingly, it may be determined 1114 if the user is leavingthe range of all directional microphones and/or directional soundemitters. For example, the user-tracking sensor, the audio qualitydetected by the closer directional microphone, the location of themobile device, and/or the like may be used to determine 1114 that theuser is leaving the range of all directional microphones and/ordirectional sound emitters. A warning may be sent to the user if theuser is leaving the range. The mobile device microphone and/or soundemitter may be communicatively coupled 1116 if the user is leaving therange. In an embodiment, step 1116 may include doing the reverse of oneor more of the actions taken in step 1108. The closer directionalmicrophone and/or directional sound emitter may be uncoupled 1118 fromthe remote entity. Step 1118 may include doing the reverse of one ormore of the actions taken in step 1106. Once the communicative couplinghas been returned to the mobile device and/or terminated, the method1100 may end.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a hands-free intercom 1200 configuredto automatically communicatively couple a user 1250 with one or moreappliances 1271, 1272, 1273. The hands-free intercom 1200 may include auser-tracking sensor 1210, a directional microphone 1220, and adirectional sound emitter 1230. The hands-free intercom 1200 may be ableto communicatively couple to the one or more appliances 1271, 1272,1273. For example, the appliances 1271, 1272, 1273 may be “smart”devices able to send and receive communications.

The hands-free intercom 1200 may allow the user 1250 to communicate withthe appliances 1271, 1272, 1273 using the directional microphone 1220,the directional sound emitter 1230, and/or a mobile device (not shown).The user 1250 may request a status, change settings, request that anactivity be commenced, and/or the like. The hands-free intercom 1200 mayalso, or instead, allow the appliances 1271, 1272, 1273 to communicatewith the user 1250, e.g., via the directional microphone 1220,directional sound emitter 1230, and/or mobile device. The appliance1271, 1272, 1273 may report changes in activity, status updates, and/orthe like. In some embodiments, the hands-free intercom 1200 maycommunicatively couple the appliances 1271, 1272, 1273 to each other.For example, a clothes washing machine 1271 may communicate with aclothes drying machine 1272 to determine how long it will take forclothes to be washed and dried and/or to attempt to align completiontimes. Similarly, the clothes drying machine 1272 may communicate with athermostat 1273 and adjust setting based on an ambient temperatureand/or humidity.

The hands-free intercom 1200 may manage which entities have rights tocommunicate with each other. The user-tracking sensor 1210 may beconfigured to identify the user 1250 and/or determine whether the user1250 provides a gesture required for access. The hands-free intercom1200 may determine which communications from the appliances 1271, 1272,1273 should be forwarded to a mobile device and/or may preventunauthorized mobile devices and/or remote users from accessing theappliances 1271, 1272, 1273. Users may have different rights, forexample, depending on identity, location, and/or the like. Similarly,the appliances 1271, 1272, 1273 may have various rights for accessingthe user 1250, as well as having various rights for accessing oneanother. The hands-free intercom 1200 may authenticate entities todetermine what rights they have.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a system 1300 for automaticallycommunicatively coupling users with appliances. The system 1300 mayinclude a communication interface 1312. The communication interface 1312may be communicatively coupled with a directional microphone 1302, adirectional sound emitter 1304, and a user-tracking sensor 1310. A usermay indicate, e.g., via vocal emissions detected by the directionalmicrophone 1302, via a gesture detected by the user-tracking sensor1310, and/or the like that the user wishes to be communicatively coupledwith an appliance 1308. The communication interface 1312 mayauthenticate the user and communicatively couple the user with theappliance 1308. The communication interface 1312 may be configured totranslate vocal emissions from the user into communications, such asmessages, understandable to the appliance 1308 and vice versa.

The appliance 1308 may be able to send communications to the user whenauthorized by the communication interface 1312. The communicationinterface 1312 may locate the user and deliver the communications. Auser accessible via the directional sound emitter 1304 and/ordirectional microphone 1302 may receive the communication via thedirectional sound emitter 1304. If a user is not accessible via thedirectional sound emitter 1304 and/or directional microphone 1302, thecommunications interface may attempt to deliver the communication to amobile communication device 1314 to which the communication interface1321 is coupled. Alternatively, or in addition, communications may besent to a computer, an e-mail address, etc. The communication interface1312 may also, or instead, deliver incoming communications from themobile communication device 1314 to the appliance 1308 if the incomingcommunications are authorized.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of a method 1400 for automaticallycommunicatively coupling users with appliances. A user request forinformation from an appliance may be received 1402 from a user. The userrequest may be for a current value of a setting, a current status,and/or the like. It may be determined 1404 whether the user is permittedto access the appliance in order to obtain the requested information(e.g., based on an identity of the user, a location of the user, accessinformation provided by the user, etc.). The information may be provided1406 from the appliance to the user if the user is permitted to obtainthe requested information.

The user may wish to have the appliance begin and/or change an activityand/or task. A user request for the appliance to start an activity maybe received 1408 from the user. It may be determined 1410 whether theuser is permitted to provide commands to the appliance. The right toprovide commands to the appliance may be distinct from the right toreceive information from the appliance. For example, a repair companyand/or manufacturer may be able to access information but unable to sendcommands. If the user is permitted to provide commands, the request tostart the activity may be provided 1412 to the appliance.

The appliance may decide that it would like to receive information fromanother appliance. For example, the appliance may be planning to adjustits settings based on the received information and/or may plan onincluding the information in a report provided to the user. A requestfor information from the other appliance may be received from theappliance 1414. It may be determined 1416 whether the appliance ispermitted to communicate with the other appliance, for example, based onthe identity of the appliance, the identity of the other appliance, usersettings, and/or the like. The request may be delivered to the otherappliance, and the requested information from the other appliance may beprovided 1418 to the appliance if communication is permitted. Byrestricting access, malicious attacks on appliances may be prevented. Ifa malicious attack is successful, restricting access may prevent anyharm from spreading among appliances.

The appliance may decide to provide information to the user. Forexample, the appliance may alert the user to a change in activity,remind the user of a current status, and/or the like. A request may bereceived 1420 from the appliance to provide information to the user. Itmay be determined 1422 whether the appliance is permitted to communicatewith the user. For example, the time of day, activity of the user,location of the user, identity of the user, urgency of the informationto be provided, and/or the like may be considered when determining 1422whether the appliance is permitted to communicate with the user. If theappliance is permitted to communicate with the user, the information maybe provided 1424 to the user. The information may be provided 1424 via adirectional sound emitter, via a mobile communication device, etc. Onceany received communications have been routed to the appropriate locationand/or denied, the method 1400 may enter a standby state until anothercommunication is received and/or may end.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopeand spirit being indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A hands-free intercommunication system forautomatically receiving call handoffs from mobile communication devices,the system comprising: a directional microphone configured to measurevocal emissions by a user; a directional sound emitter configured todeliver audio to the user by emitting ultrasonic sound waves thatproduce the audio by beating a plurality of ultrasonic sound wavestogether, downshifting the ultrasonic sound waves in the air,downshifting the ultrasonic sound waves in a material on the user, ordownshifting the ultrasonic sound waves on a material on the user; and acommunication interface configured to: determine the user iscommunicatively coupled to a remote entity via a mobile communicationdevice of the user, and communicatively couple the directionalmicrophone and the directional sound emitter to a communication deviceof the remote entity.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein thecommunication interface is configured to communicatively couple thedirectional microphone and the directional sound emitter to thecommunication device of the remote entity by communicatively couplingthe directional microphone and the directional sound emitter to themobile communication device of the user.
 3. The system of claim 2,wherein the mobile communication device treats the directionalmicrophone and the directional sound emitter as peripherals.
 4. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the communication interface is configured tocommunicatively couple the directional microphone and the directionalsound emitter to the communication device of the remote entity bycommunicatively coupling to the remote entity over a communicationnetwork without routing communication through the mobile communicationdevice of the user.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the communicationinterface is configured to determine the user is communicatively coupledto the remote entity by detecting vocal emissions by the user.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the communication interface is configured todetermine the user is communicatively coupled to the remote entity byreceiving an indication from a user-tracking sensor of a position of themobile communication device.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein thecommunication interface is configured to determine the user iscommunicatively coupled to the remote entity by prompting the mobilecommunication device of the user for a status.
 8. The system of claim 1,wherein the communication interface is configured to determine the useris communicatively coupled to the remote entity by receiving anotification from the mobile communication device of the user.
 9. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein a user-tracking sensor is configured toreceive a user gesture indicating the directional sound emitter and thecommunication device of the remote entity should be communicativelycoupled.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the directional microphoneis configured to receive vocal emissions indicating the directionalsound emitter and the communication device of the remote entity shouldbe communicatively coupled.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein themobile communication device of the user is configured to determine whento communicatively couple the directional microphone and the directionalsound emitter to the remote entity.
 12. The system of claim 1, whereinthe communication interface is configured to determine when the user isleaving the range of at least one of the directional sound emitter andthe directional microphone, and the communication interface isconfigured to terminate the communicative coupling between thedirectional sound emitter and the communication device of the remoteentity in response to the user leaving the range.
 13. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the communication interface is configured to indicateto at least one of the mobile communication device of the user and aservice provider that a communicative coupling between the mobilecommunication device of the user and the communication device of theremote entity should be established.
 14. The system of claim 1, whereinthe mobile communication device of the user is configured to determinethat the communicative coupling of the directional sound emitter and/orthe directional microphone with the communication device of the remoteentity should be terminated.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein themobile communication device of the user is configured to determine thatthe communication interface is out of communicative contact.
 16. Ahands-free intercommunication system for automatically communicativelycoupling a user to an appliance, the system comprising: a directionalmicrophone configured to measure vocal emissions by the user; adirectional sound emitter configured to deliver audio to the user byemitting ultrasonic sound waves that produce the audio by beating aplurality of ultrasonic sound waves together, downshifting theultrasonic sound waves in the air, downshifting the ultrasonic soundwaves in a material on the user, or downshifting the ultrasonic soundwaves on a material on the user; and a communication interfaceconfigured to communicatively couple the directional microphone and thedirectional sound emitter to the appliance.
 17. The system of claim 16,wherein the communication interface communicatively couples the user tothe appliance in response to a user gesture detected by a user-trackingsensor.
 18. The system of claim 16, wherein the communication interfacecommunicatively couples the user to the appliance in response to a vocalidentification of the appliance by the user.
 19. The system of claim 16,wherein the vocal emissions by the user comprise a request for theappliance to start an activity.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein therequest indicates the appliance should notify the user when the activityis completed.
 21. The system of claim 16, wherein the vocal emissions bythe user comprise a request for a status of the appliance.
 22. Thesystem of claim 16, wherein the vocal emissions by the user comprise arequest to change settings of the appliance.
 23. The system of claim 16,wherein a user-tracking sensor is configured to determine an activity ofthe user, and wherein the communication interface is configured toinstruct the appliance to change settings based on the activity of theuser.
 24. The system of claim 16, wherein the communication interface isconfigured to instruct the appliance to change settings based on thelocation of the user.
 25. The system of claim 16, wherein thedirectional sound emitter is configured to deliver an indication fromthe appliance that an activity has been completed.
 26. The system ofclaim 16, wherein the directional sound emitter is configured to deliveran indication from the appliance that a consumable substance is low. 27.The system of claim 16, wherein the directional sound emitter isconfigured to deliver a reminder of current settings.
 28. The system ofclaim 16, wherein the directional sound emitter is configured to delivera notification of a change in activity.
 29. The system of claim 16,wherein the directional sound emitter is configured to deliver a reportof an error.
 30. The system of claim 16, wherein the directional soundemitter is configured to deliver a request for permission to contact amaintenance provider.
 31. The system of claim 16, wherein thecommunication interface is configured to determine whether the applianceis permitted to communicate with the user.
 32. The system of claim 16,wherein the communication interface is configured to determine whetherthe user is permitted to communicate with the appliance.
 33. Anon-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising program codeconfigured to cause a processor to perform a method for automaticallyreceiving call handoffs from mobile communication devices, the methodcomprising: causing a directional microphone to measure vocal emissionsby the user; causing a directional sound emitter to deliver audio to theuser by emitting ultrasonic sound waves that produce the audio bybeating a plurality of ultrasonic sound waves together, downshifting theultrasonic sound waves in the air, downshifting the ultrasonic soundwaves in a material on the user, or downshifting the ultrasonic soundwaves on a material on the user; determining the user is communicativelycoupled to a remote entity via a mobile communication device of theuser; and communicatively coupling the directional microphone and thedirectional sound emitter to a communication device of the remoteentity.
 34. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim33, wherein communicatively coupling comprises transmitting a request tothe mobile communication device of the user to transfer thecommunicative coupling with the remote entity.
 35. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein communicativelycoupling comprises transmitting a request to a service provider totransfer the communicative coupling with the remote entity to thecommunication interface.
 36. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 33, wherein the method further comprisestransmitting a notification to the mobile communication device of theuser that the directional microphone and the directional sound emitterare communicatively coupled to the user.
 37. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 33, wherein the method furthercomprises transmitting a notification to the mobile communication deviceof the user that the directional microphone and the directional soundemitter are not available to be communicatively coupled to the user. 38.The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 33, whereinthe method further comprises transmitting a notification to a serviceprovider that the directional microphone and the directional soundemitter are communicatively coupled to the user.
 39. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 33, wherein the method furthercomprises determining whether the user has rights to use the directionalmicrophone and the directional sound emitter.
 40. A non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium comprising program code configured tocause a processor to perform a method for automatically receiving callhandoffs from mobile communication devices, the method comprising:causing a directional microphone to measure vocal emissions by the user;causing a directional sound emitter to deliver audio to the user byemitting ultrasonic sound waves that produce the audio by beating aplurality of ultrasonic sound waves together, downshifting theultrasonic sound waves in the air, downshifting the ultrasonic soundwaves in a material on the user, or downshifting the ultrasonic soundwaves on a material on the user; determining the user is communicativelycoupled to a remote entity via a mobile communication device of theuser; and communicatively coupling the directional microphone and thedirectional sound emitter to the mobile communication device of theuser.